"In the patchwork of rice fields and pastures spreading across southwest Louisiana is a parcel Jay Lewis’ family has called their own for longer than anyone can remember. “It’s been with us since our great, great grandfather, maybe longer,” said Lewis, 50, as he trudged through a soggy pasture on a cold January day in Jefferson Davis Parish, which is about 10 miles from Lake Charles. “Every day, I’ve been here. I’m a piece of this.”
He and his fiancée, Paola Salter, live in a small house between mobile homes owned by other family members. To make ends meet, Lewis and Salter trap turtles and pick blackberries from the wetlands and woods behind their house. They aren’t wealthy, but having land makes them feel that way.
“We have freedom and peace of mind,” Lewis said. “If you don’t have land, you don’t have nothing.”
Last year, he was shocked to learn that a Houston, Texas oil company had Louisiana’s blessing to take some of his family’s land and run a pipeline through it."
Advertisement 
